• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2000

The composition of leachates varies depending on the waste characteristics, landfill age and landfilling method. Generally, leachates contain high dissolved organic substance and ammonia nitrogen whereas phosphorus concentration was very low. Leachate A produced from young landfill is characterized by high BOD5/COD ratio (0.8) whereas leachate C produced from old landfill has lower BOD5/COD ratio (0.1). Maximum biochemical methane potential of leachate A, B (from medium landfill) and C were 271,106 and 4 ml CH4/g-COD, respectively. On the other hand, the maximum biodegradability of leachate A, B, and C were 75,30, and 1%, respectively. These results indicated that anaerobic treatment of leachate from young landfill was effective in removing organic pollutants. In case of leachate C, carbon might reside in the form of large molecular weight organic compounds such as lignins, humic acids and other polymerized compounds of soils, which are resistant to biodegradation. The lag-phase period increased with the increasing organic concentration in leachate. In case of leachate A of concentration greater than 25%, the lag-phase period increased sharply. This implied that the start-up period of anaerobic process using an unacclimated inoculum could be extended due to the higher concentration of leachate. This relatively long lag-phase is probably related to the fact that most of the inhibitory compounds have been diluted beyond their inhibitory concentrations of less than 50%. Furthermore, the ultimate methane yield and methane production rate decreased as leachate concentration increased. It was anticipated the potential inhibition was related with the steady-state inhibition as well as the initial shock load.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low temperature thermal pre-treatment on biodegradation of waste activated sludge for anaerobic digestion as a countermeasure for increasing sludge generation. The experimental condition was accomplished in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration, and $70^{\circ}C$, $80^{\circ}C$, $90^{\circ}C$ of temperature for a maximum of 120 minutes retention time. Then, it was followed by analysis of physical/chemical properties, BMP test and composition of biogas. The biogas characteristic was evaluated by applying the modified Gomperz model. As a result, solubility of dissolved substrate, such as $SCOD_{Cr}$, soluble carbohydrate, and soluble protein, and biogas production increased as temperature increased. Solubilization efficiency at $90^{\circ}C$ was 18.4 %, 17.03 % and 16.88% in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration respectively. Also, solubilization rates of carbohydrate and protein similarly increased. BMP test results also showed that methane production in excess sludge increased to 0.194, 0.187 and $0.182m^3/kg$ VS. respectively, and lag phase decreased to 0.145, 0.220, 0.351 day due to acceleration of the hydrolysis step. Consequently, low-temperature thermal pre-treatment could increase biodegradability of sludge, positively affecting biogas production and sludge reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.362-369
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• 2019

In this study, biodegradation efficiency improvement of mixed sludge for the anaerobic digestion process in wastewater treatment plant was investigated. In order to release the organic material contained in the sludge cell and promote the hydrolysis step, mixed sludge of 7% TS (Total Solids) was physically shear-treated at a shear strength of 1,000 ~ 4,000 rpm and a maximum of 120 mins. As a result of the comparison between mixed sludge before and after the treatment, the concentration of $SCOD_{Cr}$(Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand-chromium method) was increased through the conversion of granular organic matter into dissolved organic matter as shear strength and treatment time increases. The solubilization efficiency increased rapidly after 30 min of solubilization application time, and they were 11.23 %, 20.10 %, 22.52 % and 25.43% at 120 min for each shear strength conditions, respectively. Additionally, the BMP(Biochemical Methane Potential) test was conducted with the optimized samples to determine the increase of methane production by the shear pre-treatment. Consequently, methane production of each samples were 0.275, 0.310, 0.323 and $0.335m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$, which indicates that methane production was increased to a maximum of 21.28% compared to the control without the solubilization process ($0.262m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$). As a result, the physical shear-treatment is a promising process for sewage sludge pre-treatment to reduce the organic waste and increase the energy production.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.109-119
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• 2002

This study is to estimate that food waste bags with biodegradable plastic are really decomposed by microorganism in composting with food waste and to examinate how biodegradable plastic affects composting. 6 kinds of 30%, 4 kinds of 100% and 2 kinds of none biodegradable plastics were used in d1is study. In 30% biodegradable plastics the highest Degradation rare is 6% in meso-condition and 10% in thermal-condition. Srain at auto break decreased to 150% in meso-condition and 120% in thermal-condition. Stress at max load were also reduced to $180kgf/cm^2$ in mesocondition and $200kgf/cm^2$ in thermal-condition. Usually, LLDPE decreased larger than HDPE in physical characreristics but HDPE is higher in degradation rate. 1n stain at auto break and stress ar max load 100% biodegradable plastic declined to 230% and to $380kgf/cm^2$ in meso-condition and to 440% and to $400/cm^2$ in thermal-condition respectively. 100% biodegradable plastics showed higher biodegradation and decomposition then 30%. They appeared clearly through SEM observation. As a result, it was not appropriate to use 30% biodegradable plastics as food waste bag because they were not decomposed perfectly. It is possible to use 100% biodegradable plastic as it but cost is too high. So development of technique is needed.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.27-35
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• 2003

The study site located in an industrial complex has a Precambrian age gneiss as a bedrock. The poorly-developed, disturbed soils in the study site have loamy-textured surface soil (1 to 2 m) and gravelly sand alluvium subsurface (2 to 6 m) on the top of weathered gneiss bedrock. The depth of the groundwater table was about 3.5 m below ground surface and increased toward down-gradient of the site. The hydraulic conductivity of transmitted zone (gravelly coarse sand) was in the range of 5.0${\times}$10$\^$-2/∼1.85${\times}$10$\^$-1/ cm/sec. The fine sand layer was in the range of 1.5${\times}$10$\^$-3/ to 7.6${\times}$10$\^$-3/ cm/sec. and the reclaimed upper soil layer was less than 10$\^$-4/ cm/sec. Toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (TEX) was the major contaminant in the soil and groundwater. The average depth of the soil contamination was about 1.5 m in the gravelly sand alluvium layer. At the depth interval 2.4∼4.8 m, the highest contamination in the soil is located approximately 50 to 70 m from the suspected source areas. The concentration of TEX in the groundwater was highest in the suspected source area and a lesser concentration in the center and southwest parts of the site. The TEX distribution in the groundwater is associated with their distribution in the soil. Microbial isolation showed that Pseudomonas flurescence, Burkholderia cepacia, and Acinetobactor lwoffi were the dominant aerobic bacteria in the contaminated soils. The analytical results of the groundwater indicated that the concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate, and sulfate in the contaminated area were significantly lower than their concentrations in the none-contaminated control area. The results also indicated that groundwater at the contaminated area is under anaerobic condition and sulfate reduction is the predominant terminal electron accepting process. The total attenuation rate was 0.0017 day$\^$-1/ and the estimated first-order degradation rate constant (λ) was 0.0008 day$\^$-1/.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.415-425
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• 2013

This study compared the characteristics of five Bacillus strains capable of aerobic and anaerobic growth, CBW3, CBW4, CBW9, CBW14 and EBW10. They were isolated and selected from a polychaete, Perinereis aibuhitensis, which is known as a good degrader of organic compounds in marine wetland. Based on a 16S rRNA sequence, CBW3 and CBW14 were found to share more than 99.8% similarity with B. nanhaiensis, B. arsenicus and B. barbaricus. CBW4, CBW9 and EBW10 shared 92.7%, 99.8%, and 99.8% similarity with B. anthracis, B. algicoa and B. thuringiensis, respectively. The temperature, salinity, and pH ranges of the cell growth of the Bacillus strains were $4-45^{\circ}C$, 0-17%, and pH 5-pH 9, respectively. All Bacillus strains were found to exhibit enzyme activities for the degradation of casein and starch. Notably, strain EBW10 exhibited the enzyme activities for all the tested macromolecules, DNA, casein, starch, cellulose, and four kinds of Tweens, which suggests the possibility that it had protease, amylase, cellulose, and lipase. All five Bacillus strains had alkaline phosphatase activities, and the strains CBW3, CBW4, and EBW10 also had acid phospatase. Strains CBW3 and EBW10 exhibited the enzyme activities both for esterase (C4) and esterase lipase (C8). The analysis of fatty acids revealed that in all strains, major fatty acids were anteiso $C_{15:0}$ and iso $C_{15:0}$.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.145-158
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• 2023

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are effective technologies for urban wastewater management, utilizing natural physico-chemical and biological processes to remove pollutants. This study employed a bibliometric analysis approach to investigate the progress and future research trends in the field of CWs. A comprehensive review of 100 most-recently published and open-access articles was performed to analyze the performance of CWs in treating wastewater. Spain, China, Italy, and the United States were among the most productive countries in terms of the number of published papers. The most frequently used keywords in publications include water quality (n=19), phytoremediation (n=13), stormwater (n=11), and phosphorus (n=11), suggesting that the efficiency of CWs in improving water quality and removal of nutrients were widely investigated. Among the different types of CWs reviewed, hybrid CWs exhibited the highest removal efficiencies for BOD (88.67%) and TSS (95.67%), whereas VSSF, and HSSF systems also showed high TSS removal efficiencies (83.25%, and 78.83% respectively). VSSF wetland displayed the highest COD removal efficiency (71.82%). Generally, physical processes (e.g., sedimentation, filtration, adsorption) and biological mechanisms (i.e., biodegradation) contributed to the high removal efficiency of TSS, BOD, and COD in CW systems. The hybrid CW system demonstrated highest TN removal efficiency (60.78%) by integrating multiple treatment processes, including aerobic and anaerobic conditions, various vegetation types, and different media configurations, which enhanced microbial activity and allowed for comprehensive nitrogen compound removal. The FWS system showed the highest TP removal efficiency (54.50%) due to combined process of settling sediment-bound phosphorus and plant uptake. Phragmites, Cyperus, Iris, and Typha were commonly used in CWs due to their superior phytoremediation capabilities. The study emphasized the potential of CWs as sustainable alternatives for wastewater management, particularly in urban areas.